Ada has started to do pretend play. She takes her Lego people and animals and sits at the table or elsewhere with them and makes them have conversations. It actually occupies her for quite awhile which is a nice break for me and its super cute to watch. And she also started "cooking" with her play pots and pans. So she takes a pot and whisk and walks around saying "I make soup!" or "i make pancakes!" and then tastes it and says "yummy ___" and then feeds it to us. Tonight it was Lego soup, rice soup, and vegetable soup. Oh and her dad made stir fry out of legos which she also thought was yummy. Now I really want to get her a play kitchen.

Freya is 15 months old! The first two months of 2013 have brought all sorts of changes/developments. She's so happy to be walking, she goes everywhere and is really exploring making her own choices as opposed to just following me. Exciting to see how it's making her more extroverted too!

She's 33.5" and a little under 34 lbs. Despite her weight, she's starting to get that slightly leaner toddler look. Sigh. She's finally growing some hair too! She is still obsessed with ducks, but likes dressing up herself and her doll a lot now too, and kicking a ball (while saying "kick. kick") She continually asks us to "check" her nappy and that of all her stuffed animals etc. Waving her hand in front of her nose and proclaiming p.u. is her favorite response.

She's using about a dozen signs, maybe 8 of them regularly. Her vocabulary continues to amaze us. We're closing in on 100 words now, recent additions include bath, down, come, neigh and chocolate (can't imagine how she learned that one). The yesterday, in the bath she spotted a flower on her slipmat. She says "flough....coat" You have a flower in your coat don't you? (shakes head yes). Long pause then "coat...money", while touching where the flower would be if she were wearing her coat. That's right, you gave the lady some money (flower pin as a token for charity donation in front of the grocery store). Then, excitedly: "hat! hat!". Yeah, the lady was wearing a funny hat, wasn't she? Nods and says yes then repeats "hat" many times while touching her head and chuckling. Seriously the best story I ever heard. When the fork did her brain learn to do all of that? Whoa.

Wow, Freya's getting so big! What a cute smile she has! I'm really impressed with her vocabulary and signing - that's so awesome. When did you start signing with her? Just wondering because my little guy is eight months and it seems like it might be worth trying.

_________________when you realise how perfect everything is, you will tilt you head back and laugh at the sky. -buddha

Bodhi, we started sign classes at 9 months and its been great. Before that we used a few at home, but once she had friends to sign with, it really took off. I'm so happy we did it because it helps her be understood, which is so much less frustrating for all concerned

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

aww Freya! refinnej, she must be so stoked that you understood her story. And I agree, it's just amazing when these little ones remember all these details about an interaction like that. Such an exciting time.

nnej, that is INCREDIBLE. Malka has never told us a story and her vocabulary is nowhere near 100 words. It's so cool that you get to see so much of what's happening in her mind so early!

We're finding now that signing is less useful than it was a few months ago. Malka has figured out that one can ask for something one doesn't actually want and that that's a useful stalling or diversionary tactic. That or she's just trying to make small talk or something - like "hey, did you guys know that bottles exist?" while signing bottle frantically and saying "bao" over and over. There were a few days in there where we were preparing a bottle for her every hour, which she drank none of, because she kept asking for bottles over and over again. We now know that when she signs bottle and eat, especially right when she wakes up when we're trying to put her to bed, that it means "I want to get out of bed, let's go find something else to do." Her use of the "toilet" sign is really taking off, though. She is now informing us before every poop and fart that something is about to happen (she signs toilet and says poop) and then she requests verbally that we change her diaper after poops and at other times more randomly (for some reason, her word for diaper is "bish" - I think someone has been saying peas/pish to her). I can say on the signing front that her small motor skills are really amazing. She creates mini-signs that are slight variations of another sign and it's completely obvious which one she's doing - like her "tictac" sign which is a variation of "eat," the difference is using two fingers instead of all her fingers to point to her mouth.

Bodhi, we started about 8 months, because she was really trying hard to speak then (and indeed ended up saying Pappa around the same time). We started with "Mommy" "Pappa" "more" and "all done". She didn't use any of the signs for a long time (maybe 10 months, we started getting lots of "all done", then "more" and some others. Honestly, I think she might use some more if I'd remember to introduce them! I think the ones she uses everyday are: boobies (milk sign), Pappa, all done, cat, more, eat.

Ariann, I do feel really blessed sometimes that she is so communicative. It can often make things so much easier (and fun). We already have a sort of "tell me about what you did today" time with Pappa at dinner, and she nearly always has something to say...usually just one or two words like "quack" or "bump" (bump her head), but then we flesh out the story together with more bits of words and lots of yes and no. It is absolutely freaking incredible. Soon Karl's not going to be able to get in a word edgewise. :p

And that jump in brain learning is awesome eh? You start to wonder how the heck they started off as teeny tiny cells in your womb, who can now talk and tell you what they want. Amazing!!

And its funny... everytime I see her picture, I see my little niece. They are the exact same, I swear. Same built, same hair (color and length and all), same smile. And it makes me happy. I miss her... so these pics of little ladies are awesome. Thank you for posting them!

_________________~SARAH~

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”

We already have a sort of "tell me about what you did today" time with Pappa at dinner, and she nearly always has something to say...usually just one or two words like "quack" or "bump" (bump her head), but then we flesh out the story together with more bits of words and lots of yes and no. It is absolutely freaking incredible. Soon Karl's not going to be able to get in a word edgewise. :p

I love that! I do a lot of open-ended questions and fleshing out stories from a word or two, but don't have a dedicated time for it, and I think that would be SO good to do! Leela loves it when B comes home and they have their bedtime routine going, but not a dedicated time to talk and listen. I love the idea of building a practice of listening to your kid - which maybe would carry over into the years when they aren't so eager to talk to you.

One of my friends who works outside the home created this awesome time-in routine during the evenings with her daughter, and I'm so impressed by that. We are really unscheduled so a lot of the more structured interactions that would be useful for her tend to drop through the cracks. I would like to use my time better, and appreciate other people's suggestions!

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

We have a little bit of a routine when I get home from work - Dahlia always wants to spend a couple minutes laying in our bed with me. So I haul Sierra in there too and nurse her while Dahlia tells me about what she did that day. Kinda hilarious, she always tells me what she ate for breakfast and lunch and that she took a nap. My new fave thing is talking to her on the phone - we started it for her first couple days of preschool because I was so anxious and sad worrying about her. She gets home and H calls my office and puts her on the phone. Now that she's not too upset about school anymore she sounds soooo sweet telling me stuff like "I played blocks with Mr. Frank!" and so on.

Audrey, that is wonderful. I think it's so important for kids to see that we view their lives/activities as interesting/important too. Many (half at least) of Freya's conversations are repeat tales (we've heard that flower story now like 20 times in 3 days, for instance), but there are new ones as well. She's just started saying "nappy", though it sounds like "nap-me" (so cute I could die), so the yesterday/today had lots of discussion of nappies. Good times. :)

Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff. ~Catherine M. Wallace~

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

refinnej, it only gets better! Raygold and I have the funniest conversations. Sometimes they are really normal (like yesterday in the kitchen when he was singing and I told him he had a beautiful voice and he said I have a nice voice, but daddy doesn't (my husband is totally tone deaf) and that he doesn't like it when daddy sings) and sometimes they are just really left field or things I wouldn't expect (like, after watching some fruit puppets on Sesame Street, he said, "Crabby, we not eat talking oranges, okay?").

And then there are the inside jokes he shares with Beety, like whenever we try to put them to bed, they both start saying, "totally rubbish!" over and over again, while giggling. We have no idea where that came from, but it is hilarious. Raygold: Totally rubbish! *Raygold erupts into laughter; Beetroot is pretending to be asleep and snickering into his pillow.* Say it, Beet, say 'totally rubbish!'Beetroot: ...Totally rubbish! *Both burst out laughing*Raygold: Totally rubbish! Say 'totally rubbish!' again, Beet!Beetroot: Totally rubbish!

Scarlett has started waving enthusiastically at everyone she sees, and squealing with delight when they wave back! I swear she also often looks at me and says "mama" and looks at my partner and says "dadada." Is that even possible at 8 months? She is still nowhere near crawling, but seems perfectly content to just sit and be chubby, so she's certainly not in a rush when it comes to other baby milestones.

Scarlett has started waving enthusiastically at everyone she sees, and squealing with delight when they wave back! I swear she also often looks at me and says "mama" and looks at my partner and says "dadada." Is that even possible at 8 months? She is still nowhere near crawling, but seems perfectly content to just sit and be chubby, so she's certainly not in a rush when it comes to other baby milestones.

Yay! I love when babies wave! My 8 month old has been saying "mama..mamamamamama" for a long time, but has recently started saying just "mama" when he wants me. So I think it's totally possible that Scarlett is amazing and can understand and say "mama" and "dada". That's so cool though, that she's waving already!

_________________when you realise how perfect everything is, you will tilt you head back and laugh at the sky. -buddha

I can't believe my baby girl is two months old already, I'm sure I was just pregnant yesterday... but it also feels like she's been in our lives forever... She's such a smiley little girl, and we have the most amazing 'conversations' where I talk to her and she meows like a cat in response!